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Tag Archives: Arlene from Israel

As you have undoubtedly observed, the state of the world is terrible and growing worse. Social unrest, violence, threats of violence and more are all about us: From yet another – particularly horrendous – terror attack, this one in Nice; to an illegal immigrant problem in Europe that is out of control and endangers the entire European society; to Iran’s belligerent stance; to repeated incidents of racially motivated murders of police officers in the US. (Remember Obama’s promise eight years ago of a time of “post-racial” harmony?)

Could I begin this posting without alluding to these exceedingly alarming matters? They can be ignored only at great peril.

Credit: istock

In particular is this the case with regard to Islamist terror – which is still not being confronted within Europe and the US with either honesty or anything resembling requisite resolve. After the Nice attack French Prime Minister Manuel Valls declared that France is going to have to learn to live with terror.

Then there is the inability (or refusal) on the part of European officials to address the threat presented by the influx of a huge hostile Muslim population. There is actually a tendency in certain parts of Europe for authorities to hide statistics on rape and sexual aggression by Muslim immigrants, for fear of alarming the populace.

While the world most definitely prefers to ignore the intentions of Iran – and, in fact, is all too accommodating. News has just broken about a “secret deal” – an “add-on document” revealed by AP – which was apparently approved by the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany. It “will ease [nuclear constraints on Iran] in slightly more than a decade, cutting the time Tehran would need to build a bomb to six months.”

Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, speaking to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, identified Iran as Israel’s greatest threat: Iran “continues to develop its military missile program with full force,” he said.

While over in the US, after the Baton Rouge massacre of police officers, Attorney General Loretta Lynch – fueling tensions – opined that, while people should not be violent, their feelings of “helplessness” and “fear” are “understandable” and “justified.”

Not only has a huge black-white rift emerged in the US, there are anti-Israel overtones within the “Black Lives Matter” movement. Most recently, Atlanta’s mayor, Kasim Reed, flatly rejected “Black Lives Matter” demands that Atlanta’s police stop associating with Israeli police. Israel is referred to as “Apartheid Israel,” and black identification is with the people of Gaza. (Should we be surprised?)

It is hardly possible for me to address all of these issues in any detail in this one posting – I can only point in a number of very important directions.

Having done so, I want to narrow my focus to Israel-related matters. In this regard, there is some good news. I didn’t start with it, but happily it does exist.

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Right now is an especially auspicious time for me to mention the Legal Grounds Campaign, which I co-chair with Jeff Daube –http://israelrights.com

Last week we had the closing ceremony for our pilot law course. Ten law students were provided with eight classes taught by top notch international lawyers on issues regarding our rights in the land – issues that are often not adequately touched upon in the law schools. We now have ten students who will be far better equipped to address these issues once they begin their law careers.

We are delighted about this. Having proven that we can do this successfully, we are aiming for more students and more classes next year. This is a real and important contribution to Israel’s future.

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At the same time, Jeff and I are working on the first video for Legal Grounds – a presentation of the case for our rights in the land. There is so much disinformation out there, so much confusion on the various legal and historical issues, that we believe it is critical for us to present our case cogently, simply, and with great clarity. To be done in Hebrew and English versions, it will be dynamic and cutting-edge. We hope it will go viral.

We are grateful to generous donors who have provided the basic funds for the production of this video: we are very close to signing on a video producer.

Credit: zyxel

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My friends, I share quite candidly the fact that my intensive work on the Legal Grounds Campaign has prevented me from posting as frequently as has been my habit. Thus does a posting such as today’s have a feel of being not just a current report, but a review of recent events.

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As of last Wednesday, the 13th, Theresa May officially succeeded David Cameron as prime minister of Great Britain. This definitely counts as good news.

Credit: Reuters

During her service as home secretary, she demonstrated very warm feelings towards Britain’s Jewish citizens, and voiced support for Israel. She visited Israel in 2014, has spoken before a variety of Jewish groups, and, also in 2014, banned the French anti-Semitic comedian Dieudonne from entering the UK.

Prime Minister May’s selection of Boris Johnson, former mayor of London, as Foreign Secretary, is also being celebrated: Johnson has a history of exceedingly supportive ties to the Jewish community and to Israel.

Credit: Wikipedia

He was here last November in order to boost London-Jerusalem ties. Commenting on supporters of BDS, he referred to them, as “corduroy-jacketed lefty academics.” (One version reports – even better – that he said “corduroy-jacketed, snaggletoothed, lefty academics.”)

“I cannot think of anything more foolish [than to boycott] a country that, when all is said and done, is the only democracy in the region, the only place that has in my view a pluralist open society.”

Referred to as a “larger than life character,” he is, admittedly, a bit idiosyncratic. But that’s quite OK. He sounds like our kind of guy. He has not endeared himself with the Palestinian Arabs.

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The best vote of confidence in Israel: the arrival of new olim (immigrants). On Tuesday, 218 people from N. America made the flight, to come home. They were assisted by the organization Nefesh b’Nefesh.

I will mention here, just briefly, the July 10th visit to Israel of Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry. This was the first visit to Israel of an Egyptian foreign minister since 2007, and the tone was most cordial. Recently a growing relationship between Israel and Egypt – with enhanced intelligence cooperation – has come to light, spurred in part by mutual concerns about ISIS.

Shoukry came promoting a reinvigoration of “the peace process,” with Egyptian involvement. It’s that Egyptian involvement that Netanyahu welcomes, as it undercuts EU efforts.

There is talk of arranging for a meeting between Netanyahu and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi but it is not clear whether this will materialize.

Also briefly: An agreement for normalization of ties between Israel and Turkey was reached at the end of June. Vastly leery of the Islamist perspective of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, I had a response to this that was not positive, and I was hardly the only one reacting this way. In many quarters it was felt that Turkey gained too much, and Israel demanded too little.

What was particularly galling was the apology by Israel for the deaths of nine so-called “activists” who were aboard the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara – which was attempting to break the Gaza blockade six years ago. Those who died had ambushed and viciously attacked Israeli navy commandos who had come aboard to demand that the ship alter its course. A compensation fund for the families of those who died is to be established to the tune of $20 million. It feels altogether too much like an inappropriate admission of culpability from our side, a sort of appeasement. (The quid pro quo here is supposed to be that legal action against Israelis involved would be dropped.)

What is greatly disturbing, Turkey was not required to banish Hamas, but simply to ensure that Hamas not plan terrorism from inside its borders. Right….

On the other hand, Turkey did not secure one of its major demands, which was the end of the Gaza naval blockade. Turkey will be able to provide relief provisions to Gaza via an Israeli port, and to lend assistance to Hamas with reconstruction inside Gaza. (Eyebrows are raised over this last concession, which raises questions about the nature of the Turkish assistance to Hamas, particularly with regard to construction of “hospitals,” which Hamas uses as military headquarters.)

Some in the know are saying that the prime motivator of this agreement was gas. Turkey, whose ties with Russia are not what they once were, requires gas. And Israel is most interested in selling.

Others say that this agreement increases stabilization in the area, but that remains to be seen. There is even a question now as to whether the failed military coup in Turkey will end up weakening the rapport with Israel.

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I fervently wish that I could say that in Israel all is peaceful and easy, but of course that is not the case. Terror attacks and attempted attacks continue:

On Sunday morning, alert security guards stopped a suspicious Palestinian Arab man from boarding the light rail at the Jaffa Street station near King George Street, right in the center of town.

Credit: Shmuel Bar Am

Turned out that he was carrying three pipe bombs as well as knives. Had he successfully boarded, it would have been a horror. The terrorist was from a village near Hevron.

I want to share this article by Ruthie Blum – “Where is the feminist outcry?” – because the world so little understands the nature of our enemy, and what we must contend with (emphasis added):

“The recently appointed head of Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency gave his first presentation on Tuesday to the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee of the Knesset. As part of his overview of the country’s current situation, Nadav Argaman addressed the role of Arab women in the terror wave against Israelis that began last September.

“More specifically, he talked about the way in which Palestinian girls and women are being forced by the norms of their society to become cannon fodder in the ‘lone-wolf intifada’…

“According to Argaman, so far more than 40 girls and women have been wounded, killed or arrested for committing — or attempting to commit — terrorist attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians. These acts are both homicidal and suicidal in nature: geared toward murder, on the one hand, but usually involve or result in self-sacrifice.Indeed, a teenage girl who runs up to a group of IDF soldiers while flailing a knife and shouting ‘Allahu akbar’ knows she is not long for this world. Even those who go after unarmed passersby are aware that they are likely to be shot in the process.

“…most of these women had ‘shamed’ their families in some way — through what is considered to constitute sexual misconduct. This could include anything from flirting with the wrong boy — a Christian, perhaps — to engaging in actual or perceived adultery.

“These women know that what awaits them is a painful, humiliating and often slow death at the hands of one or more male relatives — fathers, brothers, uncles, cousins — with no intervention on the part of their mothers or the Palestinian police.

“Yes, honor killing is alive and well in the Palestinian Authority, whose leaders traipse around the United Nations in Armani suits to bemoan Israeli injustices.

“To ‘launder’ their inevitable end, many Palestinian girls opt to go out with a literal bang and become ‘martyrs.’ Some, Argaman said, are encouraged to do so — even driven to the site of the terrorist attacks they are told to commit — by their parents. If the girls are put to death for dishonoring their families, the stain remains. If, on the other hand, they are killed in the process of maiming Jews, their parents are guaranteed adulation and a hefty monthly stipend from the coffers of the PA, filled regularly by the United States and Europe…”

Blum’s title is right-on. It has long been a sore point with me: the failure of left wing so-called feminists to cry out on behalf of their Palestinian Arab sisters. Because this involves Palestinian Arab society, they prefer to turn a blind eye.

Please, share this broadly.

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And lastly here a look at who we are – along with further information on who they are (emphasis added):

The Knesset Special Committee on the Rights of the Child is working to resolve the issue of Palestinian Arab child beggars. It was revealed that “there are dozens of children aged five to 17 begging in the streets, the vast majority in Arab villages.

“They are mostly minors…who come through crossings or open areas, or children from East (sic) Jerusalem…This is a growing phenomenon [especially] during the holidays and summer vacation.

“…these children, who often suffer from physical and sexual abuse, are often forced by adult handlers to beg on the streets for 11 hours per day.”

Frustration has been expressed because of a lack of cooperation on this issue within the Palestinian Authority.

In my book, no issue in the news takes precedence over the negotiations with Iran. I feel as if I keep repeating myself, and yet I must, because each time after I’ve written that the situation has deteriorated vis-à-vis the negotiations, it gets worse still.

I am, quite frankly, confounded, that the American Congress (see below) and the American electorate and major European leaders are not extremely alarmed about what’s coming down the road with Obama’s handling of those negotiations. Sufficiently alarmed to want to take definitive action to stop the downward track of the talks. The analogy here truly is a run-away locomotive hurtling down a steep incline.

Are they oblivious to the deeper implications of what’s happening? Do they consider themselves impotent to make a difference? Do they know there’s a problem but imagine it won’t affect them? Are they too focused on immediate issues and private concerns to see the big picture? Whatever the case – and yes, I know the various “takes” – it’s a deeply deeply worrisome situation, as we head to the deadline for completing those negotiations.

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I will qualify what I’ve just written, in one respect, by noting that there are indeed those in Congress who are strongly opposed to what Obama is doing. That’s why the Corker Bill requiring Congressional review of any Iranian deal has been passed. However, as I understand it, should the president veto legislation overturning the deal, that veto would likely stand, because it is doubtful that there would be a Congressional super-majority sufficient to over-ride the veto. This suggests that a substantial number of people in Congress are not yet clear on the dangers of what is going on, or choose to ignore them.

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Time after time, the Obama administration has caved on demands it had placed on the Iranians. Whenever Iranian leadership balks, the Americans find a way to back off, while rationalizing the reason for doing so.

The latest issue – a very key issue – involves the requirement, insisted upon by the IAEA, that Iran must reveal all past nuclear military activity. As recently as April 8, John Kerry, in an interview with Judy Woodruff of Newshour, stated definitively that there would be no final deal without this Iranian disclosure:

“Getting Iran to come clean about the atomic work done by its military is…about base-lining the Iranian nuclear program as a critical prerequisite to any verification scheme. Without full, prior disclosure the last arguments that the administration has for the deal – that it will verifiably keep Iran a year away from a bomb – can’t be sustained.

The IAEA needs to know all of the atomic work that the Iranian military has conducted – uranium mining, centrifuge construction, enrichment, etc. – so that inspectors can verify they’ve stopped doing those activities and given up those assets. Otherwise there is no way to verify the Iranians are meeting its obligations.”

Ceren cites David Albright and Bruno Tertrais – respectively of the Institute for Science and International Security and Fondation pour la recherche stratégique – on this:

“It is critical to know whether the Islamic Republic had a nuclear-weapons program in the past, how far the work on warheads advanced and whether it continues. Without clear answers to these questions, outsiders will be unable to determine how fast the Iranian regime could construct either a crude nuclear-test device or a deliverable weapon if it chose to renege on an agreement.”

Back in March, the WSJ ran a piece saying that the Obama administration was caving on this. As Ceren describes it:

The West was prepared to “frontload sanctions relief and insist the Iranians come clean some time later lest they face snapback.” This means removing sanctions before the Iranians have provided the required information, The only mechanism then for getting the Iranians to comply would be the threat of re-instating sanctions: “a transparent way of papering over a total collapse.”

It was in response to this WSJ charge that Kerry offered his April 8th denial.

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The whole notion of a “snapback” of sanctions is a highly dubious proposition – once sanctions, which took years to put into place, have been lifted, it would be extremely difficult to reinstate them. If the sanctions that are still in place now (some have already been eased) are not sufficient to coerce Iran into providing required data, the dubious threat that lifted sanctions would be reinstated is likely to have zero effect on the Iranians. The mullahs would consider themselves “home free.”

Iranian President Rouhani said on TV on Saturday that he would not accept a UN inspections regime that jeopardized state secrets.

“Iran will absolutely not allow its national secrets to fall into the hands of foreigners through the Additional Protocol or any other means.”

“World powers are prepared to accept a nuclear agreement with Iran that doesn’t immediately answer questions about past atomic weapons work, U.S. and Western officials said. Washington has said such concerns must be resolved in any final deal.

“After a November 2013 interim accord, the Obama administration said a comprehensive solution ‘would include resolution of questions concerning the possible military dimension of Iran’s nuclear program.’

“But those questions won’t be answered by the June 30 deadline for a final deal, officials said, echoing an assessment by the U.N. nuclear agency’s top official earlier this week. Nevertheless, the officials said an accord remains possible. One senior Western official on Thursday described diplomats as ‘more likely to get a deal than not’ over the next three weeks.

”Steinitz, who was in Washington last week to discuss the Iran diplomacy, said the world powers – the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany – were considering a stop-gap whereby inspections would be decided on ‘by committee.’

“Such an arrangement might offer reassurance on paper, but in reality it would give Iran time to cover up illegal nuclear activity or even relocate it off-site,” he told Reuters.”

Ah, our government must be an unending thorn in the side for Obama and his flunkies. I’m not aware of officials from other countries as forthright as this.

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Then there is former head of Mossad, Shabtai Shavit, who spoke at the Herzliya Conference the other day. Also forthright: The Iranians, he said, are using the fact that Obama wants a deal with Iran to be part of his legacy to pressure him for more and more concessions.

“Their patience is much greater than the patience of western negotiators. They will exhaust the Americans, they will squeeze them.”

I’ve written before about the Druze community in Syria, which is now threatened by the jihadists who are moving in. What I addressed then was the possibility that those Druze just over the border in the Syrian Golan might flee into Israel.

But the number of Druze adjacent to the Israeli border near Mt. Hermon is relatively small – perhaps 25,000, while many times that number of Druze live in other areas – primarily in the highlands of Jabal al-Druse, in Suwayda province in the southeast of Syria. In the early part of the 20th century, there was an autonomous Druze region there and there are those who dream of such autonomy again. And there are others in the north, close to Turkey.

What is certain is that all the Druze of Syria are currently at risk. There have been rallies on their behalf held by Druze in Israel, and appeals by Druze leaders such as Sheikh Moafaq Tarif, pictured with the prime minister below. Israel does not foresee the possibility of absorbing all the Druze into northern Israel, and is exceedingly reluctant to enter into direct battle in Syria to protect them.

Credit: Moshe Milner/GPO

However, as one Israel source cited by the Times of Israel said:

“…as a people that experienced the Holocaust, we have no intention of ignoring the possibility of a mass genocide of the Druze minority.” Walla cited a senior Israeli military official, briefing reporters, who said “Israel would not stand idle if it sees a massacre.”

Israel has put out appeals in a variety of quarters – to the US (via Chief of Staff General Martin Dempsey when he visited in Israel last week), the Red Cross, etc. – for greater assistance to the Druze community.

Additionally, what is being discussed in Jerusalem is the possibility of establishing a safe zone for the Druze directly over the border in the Golan. Some sources say a decision on this has not been made yet, others – such as Walla – reports that it has.

The possibility of a Kurdish state is not simply an idle dream, but, rather, moves closer to reality with the current unrest in the region. The Kurds have been working towards this goal, with considerable infrastructure and organization in place, for a long time.

The situation surrounding the negotiations with Iran and Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech to Congress daily grows more ominous, more convoluted, and more contentious.

I would like to begin with the latest “scoop” – which is supposed to put the lie to Bibi’s charge in 2012 in the UN (complete with that famous chart) that Iran was on the cusp of becoming a nuclear power.

As Arutz Sheva described the situation yesterday:

“Al Jazeera began publishing Monday night several documents allegedly leaked from the Israeli Mossad – via the Spy Cables database shared with the British Guardian.

One of the documents alleged that, just a few weeks after the famous speech Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu gave in 2012 assessing Iran as being about one year away from building a nuclear weapon, the Mossad sent a confidential report to South Africa’s State Security Agency (SSA) stating that, in their estimation, ‘Iran does not engage in the necessary activities required for the production of weapons of mass destruction.’ (Emphasis added)

Ah ha! went the cries of those opposed to Bibi’s speech – See, he exaggerated, he misrepresented, he’s not to be trusted.

No so, my friends. And please do not take my word for this.

Today I contacted Brig. Gen. (ret.) Yossi Kuperwasser, until recently the director-general of the Ministry of Security Affairs. There is no contradiction between the alleged Mossad report and what Bibi said, Kuperwasser explained:

The Mossad was talking about weaponization. And it’s true that in 2012 Iran was not involved in the weaponization process – they had already done this before 2003. (I note that by 1998 Iran was domestically producing the Shahab-1 and Shahab-2, and by 2003 the Shahab-3 – ballistic missiles being one part of the weaponization.)

What the prime minister was talking about, said Kuperwasser, was the enrichment process: Iran had stocks of uranium enriched to 20%, and were in the position of being able to follow through to do enrichment to 90+%, which is what is needed for weapons purposes.

What must be made clear, however, is that in bringing the uranium to 20%, 90% of the enrichment effort has already been expended. That is, the hard part is getting it to 20%. To move it from 20% to 90+% – which is weapons grade uranium – is a relatively quick and simple process. This is the danger Netanyahu was warning the world about in 2012.

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But there is even more, which I ask you to note as well, from Yossi Melman, intelligence correspondent, writing in the JPost (emphasis added):

“After promising to release a bombshell of leaked secret Mossad cables, Al Jazeera’s publication of documents later Monday fell short of that mark…Al Jazeera did not obtain an original and authenticated document from the Mossad…

“What they published was a South Africa Sate Security Agency (SSA document that is based on a briefing given to them by the Mossad. The document from 2013 contains no secrets and any reader, or follower of public reports on Iran’s nuclear program, especially the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is familiar with the facts written in that document.

“The Mossad provided details in its briefing, such as the quantities of Iran’s enriched uranium at its two levels – 3.5% and 20% – about the development of Iran’s nuclear reactor at Arak, and its statement that Iran is ‘not performing the activity necessary to produce weapons.’

“That assessment was correct – it isn’t possible to utilize fissile material for a bomb only with 20% enriched uranium – an enrichment of 93% is required – and Iran did not have it at the time of the document’s writing, and doesn’t have it now. Certainly it doesn’t present any evidence of a wedge between the Mossad and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with regard to Iran’s nuclear program…

“Israeli intelligence estimates are that Iran is working to be a nuclear power – a few months way from the ability to assemble the bomb – but not capable of building it now.

“More than anything, Iran wants the international community to lift the economic sanctions.

“Israeli intelligence researchers know that Iran is already on the verge of becoming a nuclear threshold state. It has the know-how, technology and materials to construct the bomb in a matter of a few months or perhaps a year, if and when the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gives the order.”

And so please, my friends, do not believe everything you read and hear in the current effort to discredit Netanyahu.

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Please see, as well, yet another piece – “Now we know who to believe on Iran,” by David Horovitz, editor of Time of Israel (emphasis added):

“The Obama administration claimed Israel was misrepresenting its deal with the ayatollahs. Reports from Geneva indicate Israel’s concerns were all too accurate…

“After anonymous sources in Jerusalem leaked to Israeli reporters in recent weeks the ostensible terms of the deal being hammered out, various spokespeople for the Obama administration contended that the Netanyahu government was misrepresenting the specifics for narrow political ends. They sneered that Israel didn’t actually know what the terms were. And they made the acknowledgement — the astounding acknowledgement for a United States whose key regional ally is directly and relentlessly threatened with destruction by Iran — that the Obama administration is consequently no longer sharing with Jerusalem all sensitive details of the Iran talks.

“And yet among the terms of the deal being reported by the Associated Press from Geneva on Monday are precisely those that were asserted in recent weeks by the Israeli sources, precisely those that were scoffed at by the Administration. Centrally, Iran is to be allowed to keep 6,500 centrifuges spinning, and there will be a sunset clause providing for an end to intrusive inspections in some 10-15 years. If anything, indeed, some of the terms reported by the AP are even more worrying than those that were leaked in Jerusalem: ‘The idea would be to reward Iran for good behavior over the last years of any agreement,’ the AP said, ‘gradually lifting constraints on its uranium enrichment program and slowly easing economic sanctions.’ There is also no indication of restrictions on Iran’s missile development — its potential delivery systems…

”It goes without saying that this weekend’s developments in Geneva have only bolstered Netanyahu’s determination to sound the alarm before Congress next Tuesday. It’s also still clearer today why the Obama administration has been so anxious to query his motives and seek to discredit his concerns.”

“It is also still clearer today why the Obama administration has been so anxious to query [Netanyahu’s] motives and seek to discredit his concerns.”

Keep this in mind, please, as you read the hysterical accusations against Bibi. And I ask that you do something else. Speak out with the facts. You know the routine: do talkbacks on the Internet, letters to the editor, call-ins on talk-shows, put this information on your FB pages and websites, put it up on group discussion lists, etc. etc. Here is an opportunity to help Israel.

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Yet another charge that is being leveled at Netanyahu is that the unrest he is “causing,” the tension he is generating politically in the US, will result in a reduction of American support for Israel.

The only problem with this charge is that it’s not true. A Gallup poll conducted between February 8 and February 11 indicates that seven in 10 Americans continue to view Israel favorably, and there has been no significant change in that number from a year ago.

“According to Gallup’s explanation of the results, these numbers suggest that neither the friction between Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama nor last summer’s conflict in Gaza significantly impacted on the US public’s perceptions toward Israel or the Palestinians.”

Two Democratic Senators, Richard Durbin (D-Illinois) and Dianne Feinstein (D-California), have written a letter to PM Netanyahu, inviting him to meet with Democratic lawmakers while he is in Washington next week. Their intention is to “maintain Israel’s dialogue with both political parties in Congress.”